Testing Phases

Testing Phases

• Alpha - This phase is when the development team creates a build that could possibly turn into a game. This phase generally contains a lot of bugs, defects and game crashing errors or severe bugs so the team normally fixes most of those during this phase before they start adding in featured assets. This build should be handled with care and only a professional team should test this build as they know what they are doing so that reporting the Crash/Severe bugs will be written in an appropriate and detailed manner for the development team to fix the defect as fast as possible.
• Beta - This is when the game is close to release, when the development team actually starts putting in detailed assets within the game. This build should only contain 1-2 crash or severe bugs that are ridiculously difficult to reproduce and do not require much attention at all. Beta normally has a lot of General, Minor and Cosmetic bugs and small bugs that would take forever to look for especially if it's a huge game like an MMO. This is when the game releases an Open Beta which lets players openly test the game to find any extremely noticeable bugs and it would be reported on their forum.
• Gold - This is the release of the game when all testing is done and the game is "finished". They of course still have many bugs to go through and fix but the main thing is that most game breaking defects have been fixed and playing through the game wouldn't be a problem, only a couple of minor, cosmetic bugs.